Book Review: The Darkest Pastoral: Selected Poems

In the poetry collection Darkest Pastoral by John Kinsella, we are treated to poems about place, people, animals and even chilies.

Naturally, I was drawn to the poems about animals. And this collection does not disappoint.

John Kinsella is often identified as an “eco-poet” a term that has gained momentum over the past few decades. Where he stands apart from most other eco-poets is his veganism. So much eco-poetry is rich with grief over a dying planet yet overlooks the role that the killing and eating of animals has played and continues to play.

Kinsella knows full well the barbarity of mankind towards animals and we see this in a number of poems, such as “Window Shopping at the Taxidermist’s” and “180 Degrees of Separation,” in which he writes:

The sheep came here before entering the yard
for the killing: he would cut their throats

with a short, worn life. I have written
about this in a variety of ways. I keep

rewriting the same poem.

Yet there is much light amidst the darkness, in his odes to ants and parrots, echidnas and eagles. Kinsella sees them all, large and small, their interactions with humans in city and farm. Such as the western flycatchers he watches through a window in “Reverse Anthropomorphism:”

This is not a rare experience, it happens most days.
We have grown familiar. Don’t mistake my indifference
for their indifference, or their relaxation
for a reflection of mine. We do not share.
Though I am touched that they are near.

The author is always looking out for animals, particularly while driving at night, as witnessed in the dramatic poem “Write-off”:

Night drives home are always fraught
and an eye has to be kept out for kangaroos
and even emus, sometimes foxes and often rabbits
plus owls and tawny frogmouths that swoop
across the parabola of headlights.

For those who seek poems that do not flinch from the darkness of humanity while also celebrating the brilliance of nature, Kinsella is your poet.

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